to think more female taxi drivers would make people more comfortable?

[SueSylvesterforPM]

I've pondered this for a long time

after having a nasty incident with 2 taxi drivers at 15
and now my cousin is telling me (14)

that she got a taxi with a few mates to a birthday and he was asking for numbers address generally being innapropriate and knew how old they were.
Many women I've known have had unpleasant experiences at the hands of Taxi drivers

i'm not tarring them all btw, I've always wondered if I had enough money behind me I'd make a company for it

so yeah is it a daft Idea??

There are a few women-only taxi firms about.

I always ask for a woman driver if I am booking a cab. Not had any bad experiences, but know others who have and of course there was the Warboys case and others. Now I use my economic power to increase demand for woman drivers and encourage my friends to do the same.

Your cousin should report that driver to the police.

We have loads of female drivers here when I first started driving them when DH was off there was one other female driver.

I had a bad experience before they where licenced at the time DH was just a friend and went nuts about it when I told him, as it shouldn't of happened and it gave everyone else a bad name.

I don't think women do it because they have the same problem but reversed, male passengers drunk/abusive/inappropriate with female drivers. It's a good idea but I think it would probably only work with the black taxis where there's an actual partition between the passenger and the driver.

I should add that I am aware that my economic power is (very!) limited, but every little helps, as they say. I decided to do it after they arrested that guy for Sian O'Callaghan's murder, but had been thinking about it for ages.

another problem is that you have to work really long hours generally to make a good living and most women with dcs can't do that.

Great idea Sue, There must be a way to address the safety risk Karia mentions.

I think it goes both ways. I would feel more comfortable with a female taxi driver, but then again, I'm a woman. My father on the other hand would rather walk 10 miles on bloody stumps than get in a car driven by an unknown female as he thinks all women are rubbish drivers (sore point, cant change him he's too old lol)
Likewise I can imagine some women taxi drivers potentially being at risk from groups of lads who are the worse for drink (or just pervs).

I'd rather have a taxi driver who was surly and unhelpful, than one who raped me. As one bad experience goes, I'd go for the s & u every time.

I think the only way it can work is to ahve a co-operative of women drivers who will only take women and families. So no groups of drunken young men.

Agree about using our economic clout to provide jobs for women as well.

There's only two female taxi drivers in the town I live in, and one is the rudest driver there is!
I know most of them and have a few personal numbers (including the other woman) who I call first and get one of them to pick me up if they are free.

Are you allowed to ask for a woman driver? Is it not sex discrimination?

Unfortunately I think a cab company who only took female passengers would come under some heavy fire with European sex discrimination laws.

I'm a mobile therapist, but I won't give full body massages to men, unless I know them very well and spouse is going to be home. Its for my safety more than anything, but I'm not allowed to advertise that, so instead I end up pretending I'm fully booked and can't fit them in when they call.

Complete waste of everyones time, but the only way I can get away with protecting myself.

What happened to the Pink Ladies taxi company that was running somewhere in the NW?
They had problems with being accused of discrimination, but I don't know what the result was.
We use a local firm, the bloke who runs it is very fussy about his drivers being professional and behaving appropriately at all times. His wife often drives, and there are two other women on his books.

Also, 1 female taxi driver:(potentially) 4 guys is probably at mug greater risk than group of girls going out: 1 male driver.

If we're concerned about safety it's probably best to just share a ride.

I dont like female taxi drivers

I don't think consumer requests come under sex discrimination law!

There are women only cab companies that are offshoots of "normal" cab companies. If they get requests from men, they just pass on the order to the sister company.

The last female driver I encoutered had lots of fluffy shit and stuffed toys on the dash. And she was very uncommunicative.

Bet she didn't make you feel unsafe though onlion

Yes I think you can have exceptions under equal ops law can't you?

She didnt make me feel safe

I've never necked the law specifically, but when I was training it was made clear to us that if you work mobile you are not able to advertise that you dont take male clients, but they couldn't pore that you weren't solidly booked so it was fine to get around it that way.

Maybe my teacher didn't know what she wa talking about

LOL I wouldn't have given her a tip either zukie

Just saying I think it's a good idea for women in general to support women's businesses. Men favour each other all the time and it's seen as normal and no-one questions it and if women favoured each other as much as men favour each other, we'd all be less poor.

But I would also rther use someone male who was helpful than someone female who was rubbish. If I didn't know either though, I'd use the female one on the basis that the OP suggested - that I'd feel safer.